Marianne Faithfull

Mick Jagger’s muse always ate Guglhupf on Sunday

Barbara Stelzl-Marx and Marianne Faithfull in Vienna

(Bild: BIK)

Austrian historian Barbara Stelzl-Marx knew the singer Marianne Faithfull, who died in London on Thursday, personally. In an interview with krone.at, the researcher revealed details of the British singer's life that have remained hidden to many.

The BBC filmed an episode about the celebrated singer, actress and diva for the documentary "Who Do You Think You Are?", which is extremely popular in England. And wanted the researcher's views on the historical context of Faithfull's origins. In December 2012, the two met for an interview in Vienna.

"When I was able to meet Marianne Faithfull for the interview, the focus was on an aspect of her biography that was far less publicized and is hardly or not at all mentioned in the numerous obituaries: she grew up in post-war England as the daughter of an Austrian 'war bride' and a British intelligence officer who had been stationed in Vienna," Stelzl-Marx tells krone.at. "For the BBC documentary, I was asked to describe the background to her parents' relationship. And it was quite dramatic," explains the researcher.

Barbara Stelzl-Marx is Professor of European Contemporary History at the University of Graz and Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on the Consequences of War in Graz, Vienna and Raabs.

(Bild: Hoffmann/FWF)

Mother was the victim of rape
Her mother, Eva von Sacher-Masoch, was the grandniece of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the author of Venus in Furs, to whom the second part of the term "sado-maso" goes back. At the outbreak of the Second World War, she had moved from Berlin, where she had worked as a ballerina for the Max Reinhardt Company, to Vienna. After liberation by the Red Army in April 1945, she was raped here. When Vienna was finally occupied by all four Allies in the summer, she met the British intelligence officer Robert Glynn Faithfull.

 "She married the 'spy' when she was already pregnant and eventually emigrated to Great Britain as an 'occupation bride', not least as protection against further attacks," explains Stelzl-Marx. Her only daughter, Marianne Faithfull, was born on December 29, 1946. "She told me in the margins of the interview how it had bothered her as a little girl that her mother had an English accent and was different from the mothers of her school friends. On Sundays, we often had a typical Austrian Gugelhupf," the historian chats from the sewing box.

Marianne Faithfull died in London at the age of 78.

(Bild: AFP/Samuel Kubani)

An adventurous life
Most of the key dates of her "adventurous life", as she herself called it, which was marked by both highs and lows, are generally known: Faithfull began her musical career at the tender age of 17, when she was discovered by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham in 1964. Her first big hit "As Tears Go By", written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, breathed the spirit of the times and made her world-famous overnight. With hits such as "Come And Stay With Me" and "This Little Bird", she established herself as an icon of the "Swinging Sixties" in London.

"Naked girl at Stones party"
 However, her relationship with Mick Jagger, which lasted from 1966 to 1970, and her excessive lifestyle soon dominated the news. The infamous raid on Keith Richards' house in February 1967 in particular was a turning point: "Naked girl at Stones party" was the headline in the "Evening Standard". Marianne Faithfull felt like a "fallen angel" afterwards. In the 1970s, she slipped into drug addiction, lived partly on the streets and withdrew from the public eye.

Despite these challenges, she made an impressive comeback in 1979 with the album "Broken English", with a hoarse, deeper voice that was to become her trademark from then on. "Strange Weather" followed in 1987 with the hit "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan". By this time, she had - finally - overcome her drug addiction. In addition to her music career, she was also successful as an actress and appeared in films such as "The Girl on the Motorcycle" (1968) and "Irina Palm" (2007).

Marianne Faithfull died in London on January 30, 2025 at the age of 78. Not only her songs, but also the spoken word album "She Walks in Beauty" recorded four years ago with wonderfully performed poems by Lord Byron will be remembered. Her life has been adventurous right from the start. And: "It has been rather wonderful", she said. A farewell to Marianne Faithfull!